and we acknowledge the facts laid bare
by tinted lens
Summary: let me know, if you're going to be alright. (am i going to be alright?) / or Pokkle, Ponzu, and flashbacks. arrow&bee.


**title;** and we acknowledge the facts laid bare**  
summary; **let me know, if you're going to be alright. (am i going to be alright?) / or Pokkle, Ponzu, and flashbacks.**  
disclaimer; **do not own _hxh_, eisley's song _ambulance_, rilo kiley's _the good that won't come out of us_, or line from a poem titled _time fractures and blank pages_ by from-dawn-to-dusk on deviantart.

**spoilers for the chimera ants arc.**

.

let's talk about all our friends who lost the war,

and the novels that have yet to be written about them.

.

it's the end.

he falls, sees red and corpses and death in a blur, the unmistakable scent of murder fogging his senses – but it doesn't matter, now. not anymore.

and all he can manage to think of is her, lying unreachable and so, so far just meters away, turquoise hair a tangled mess around her body and blood staining her face over pale skin and blue eyes and he –

he wants to go back.

he wants to save her.

.

he dreams of saturdays – their faces are close and fingers are laced together, bodies on soft mattress covered by wrinkled sheets. he imagines her smiling and he's smiling too and he likes the feeling of it all – the comfort, the warmth, her skin against his.

he feels safe.

.

she holds his hand as they leave to ngl.

"don't worry." he says, as if whispering reassurances into her ear.

(looking back, he thinks that it might just be the biggest lie he could ever tell her.)

she nods, but grips his hand tighter anyways, digs her fingernails deeper inside his skin. he kind of likes the pain.

.

he doesn't remember her name, at first.

_girl #246, eliminated during fourth phase_ – is the first thing that comes to mind, but her hair and eyes and smile remind him of things he's otherwise forgotten, like thunderstorms and islands and how he lets her wrap her hand around him as they pull the lever –

he can't ever forget her smile.

.

they catch up on a lot of things.

how he's a hunter now (she smiles knowingly at this) and she's found work in agencies and companies looking for someone who can do whatever – then she offers him a job ("—there's an empty spot,") and honestly, he doesn't know why she's willing to be so nice to someone, to believe in genuine kindness.

he thinks it might be a mask – he's not stupid, he can see scars (crescent and pink and hidden) underneath the perfection.

.

when they arrive, the first place they go to is the morgue.

there are corpses, still warm and blood-splattered, parts of their bodies ripped off with eyes wide open lying all over the floor, their smell suppressed by the thin cloth placed awkwardly over them.

he identifies the bodies – _yes_, _just as i suspected_ – and even helps the man shove them one by one into body bags, waiting in line to be buried in unmarked graves.

"horrible." she mutters, once all the work there is done and they're moving on to another location. "it's horrible."

the horse keeps moving. "i know."

her lips curl into a thin smile. he smiles back.

they try to be strong.

.

they run into a pack of ants in the woods, barely surviving the attacks.

the other five groups disappear, without a trace – he assumes the worst. she sends messages throughout the area using her bees.

not one answers.

.

(later that night, she holds his hand again.

she trembles and shakes, trying to keep the bees from escaping.)

.

he remembers teaching her how to shoot, just a few months before ngl.

"so this is how it must've felt like," she says, plucking the arrow off the target. it misses just by a few centimeters, stabbing the shoulder. "when you knocked #105 down."

he's forgotten the incident already. "yeah. like that, kind of."

she laughs. "really? it's a good feeling."

her laugh rings in his ears for days.

.

he slides next to her, on their sixth day.

"found anyone?" she says, her fingers tracing shapes in the clouds absently. the sky is cloudless and the sun is shining – bright, too bright.

"no. they've probably been taken away." his voice cracks. if only they'd come sooner, he thinks, all of them might still be alive.

her face fell, and they sit in awkward silence for a moment. her eyes are still pasted onto the sky, empty and broken and sad. he rummages with their supplies, looking for whatever food it left.

he doesn't want it. he doesn't want to see anyone die again.

he doesn't think he'll survive another day – neither does she.

.

"pokkle?"

"yes?"

"i'm scared."

he doesn't know what to say, except mirroring her words. "it's okay. i'm scared, too."

"we'll get through this together, right?"

"we will." he says, "we'll put together a plan, contact the organization tomorrow morning, call for the others. it's useless to fight now."

"we'll defeat them. with help, we can definitely stop them -"

maybe for once, they can be the hero, he thinks. maybe they can make it – "get to the border, to the nearest city," she plans, her words trailing off into incoherency.

it's sort of nice – to have someone with you, someone who understands.

.

she puts a small pill in his hand.

"what's this?"

"antidote. cures most poisons." she says quickly, eyes not meeting his. "you know, just in case –"

he pops it into his mouth. he looks at her, understanding.

"good luck."

.

she kisses him,

(it's barely dramatic and the sun is too hot and they're both going to die, but it's perfect nonetheless.)

.

they depart to the final mission.

.

"_we'll get through this together, right?"_

"_we can definitely stop them –"_

her voice echoes, over and over again in the darkness.

.

it's the end.

she runs away, going deeper into the woods. the greenery around her shifts into a haze, a mash of color as she goes on, desperate for the exit. she struggles to hold back tears – _no_, _she has to be strong_ – run, run, run, just a little further –

i can't save him by myself! she tells herself, thinks about him, lying alone on the ground, and she just wants to cry harder. they – they're not going to eat him immediately –

she pictures him, paralyzed and dying, eyes closed and lifeless and his body far, farther as she runs faster and closer to the border.

the poison kicks in and she jolts, falls on her knees, face against the dirt.

"no – no, no, no –"

.

the last thing she remembers is writing the message – her last hope – and then, watching the bee fly away into the woods.

"i'm sorry –"

.

she wants to save him.

she wants to go back.

.

_fin._

.

**a/n: wow. angsty. wish i could write something better – something longer. because this otp of mine is ridiculously underrated.**

**irrelevant: my headcanon is that ponzu gave pokkle the poison he used with kyu – i mean, where else would he get it?**

**anyway, thoughts?**


End file.
